Last fall when we first cataloged the stainless-steel compost
pail (page 83), we anticipated that it would get reasonably good
reception since it is economical, non-staining, durable, attractive,
etc. What we did not expect was that it would become popular for
a number of uses other than compost. One of our customers who
runs a dog kennel saw them as perfect water buckets and outfitted
all of the dog stalls with them. He slides them under a wall clip,
which keeps them from tipping. Another customer phoned to say
that she had always had difficulty holding a standard pail between
her knees when she milked her goats, but that this one was absolutely
perfect for the chore since it was easy to hold as well as having
a lid, which made it unnecessary to strain the errant bits of
chaff or hay that otherwise found their way into the pail sometime
between the act of milking and the arrival of the milk in the
house. But the most popular use, mentioned by a number of customers,
was that it made quite an elegant wine bucket. One in particular
mentioned using it to hold a bottle of champagne on the eve of
the new millennium. The net result of people finding all of these
alternative uses for the bucket was that demand exceeded supply
fairly quickly.

All of this appears not to have been lost on the original supplier
since our restocking order was accepted only at a higher price.
Such is the way of the world. Good things are often snatched from
us in an untimely manner while the bad linger on like cooking
odors in an apartment building.